South Ossetia suspends easy rules of crossing border with Georgia for three days

May 05, 2015, 12:49 UTC+3TSKHINVALThe measure is expected to enhance public security during celebrations on the occasion of the V-Day’s 70th anniversary, the press office of South Ossetia’s State Security Committee said

TSKHINVAL, May 5. /TASS/. South Ossetia on May 8-10 will suspend the operation of checkpoints on the border with Georgia that let locals travel either way according to simpler rules, the press office of South Ossetia’s State Security Committee has said. The measure is expected to enhance public security during celebrations on the occasion of the V-Day’s 70th anniversary, the State Security Committee said, adding that the routine border crossing procedures would resume as of May 11.

Easy border crossing rules are effective in South Ossetia for the residents of the remote Leninogorsk district, which has had tight historical bonds with Georgia. The local residents have special passes allowing them to cross the border without any formalities, because many families live on either side of the border and their households are split. After the six-day war of 2008 closing the border with Georgia altogether might have bred social problems in the district, because a large amount of food supplies had to be brought from Georgia, as there was no road link with South Ossetian capital Tskhinval.

In 2010, two roads connecting Tskhinval and Leningor, 78 kilometres and 63 kilometres long, opened to traffic. The Leninogorsk district of South Ossetia has since received most supplies from the South Ossetian capital city, but the problem of split families and properties remains.